Iran Reform Rally Turns Bloody

Armed Islamic Vigilantes Clear Tehran Square Of Rivals

July 09, 2000|By Guy Dinmore, Special to the Tribune.

TEHRAN — Islamic vigilantes armed with clubs and automatic weapons took control of central Tehran on Saturday night after driving out thousands of demonstrators in the worst clashes in the Iranian capital in a year.

There were no reports of deaths but witnesses saw demonstrators injured when militants of the Ansar-e-Hezbollah, or Friends of the Party of God, charged with chains, clubs and broken bottles around the central Revolution Square, close to Tehran University, where pro-reform students had held a day of peaceful protests.

Police and militants arrested many demonstrators from a crowd that numbered several thousand at its peak. Some protesters retaliated with stones.

The crowd that marched on Revolution Square appeared to be a mix of students, onlookers, and possibly radicals opposed to the clerical regime. Riot police firing tear gas barred their way but the Islamic vigilantes, chanting slogans supporting Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, broke through and attacked the crowd.

The students had earlier held a day of peaceful protests, handing out flowers to passers-by and organizing seminars of non-violence to mark the first anniversary of a crackdown by security forces on student demonstrations, during which at least one person was killed.

The raid a year ago led to several days of the worst violence in Tehran since the early days of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Late Saturday, fires were burning in the streets and glass was shattered from the windows of storefronts and kiosks.

Reporters said police fired warning shots near a student dormitory but it was unclear whether they were using live ammunition.

The violence was largely unexpected. Leaders on the both sides of Iran's political divide--supporters of pro-reform President Mohammad Khatami and his conservative rivals--had emphasized the need for calm.

"We must not act in a way which would widen the gap between people and the government, something could eventually lead to an explosion," Khatami said in remarks published early Saturday. "People must be allowed to speak clearly and criticize their government."

Khatami is due to fly to Germany on Monday for a three-day state visit, the first by an Iranian leader since the revolution.

But diplomats said his visit could be called off if the president felt the risk of leaving Iran at a critical moment and confronting protests in Berlin by militant Iranians in exile outweighed the advantages of promoting ties with Iran's historically closest ally in Europe.

A few demonstrators Saturday night chanted slogans against Khatami, saying, "This is his final warning," expressing frustration at the slow pace of political and economic change that has been thwarted by conservatives.

After a resounding defeat inflicted by reform supporters of the president in parliamentary elections last February, conservative clerics have used their control of the judiciary to hit back.

Courts have closed nearly all reformist publications and jailed or charged about 20 leading activists.

Two prominent lawyers, Shirin Ebadi, a defender of women's rights, and Mohsen Rahami, who had acted on behalf of students attacked a year ago, were told they would go on trial next Saturday.

They are charged with helping to make a videotape in which a purported vigilante alleges that senior conservative clerics were behind attacks on reformists. The judiciary says the tape is pure invention.

Western diplomats said the renewed violence is an expression of desperation of conservative elements aware that their power is slipping away. They doubted that Khamenei had sanctioned Saturday's move by the militants.

Javad Salehi, a leader of the students' Office for Fostering Unity, said events marking last year's bloodshed were intended to analyze the roots of religious violence.

Speaking before the clashes erupted, he commented, "What is clear is that resorting to violence will spread violence."

The Office for Fostering Unity said it had no part in Saturday's violence.